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New Scientist Live

Invention: Brain radiator

Epileptic seizures get worse when they cause regions of the brain to overheat – using a tube to conduct that heat to a heat sink, or radiator, could cool them down and reduce an episode’s severity

(Image:USPTO)

Brain radiator

In severe epileptic seizures, over-excited brain cells fire at such a rate they can raise the brain’s temperature in that area. This causes more nerves to fire in a feedback mechanism that makes the episode even worse. One way of preventing such escalating seizures is to cool the area of the brain that is susceptible.

So Takashi Saito and colleagues at Yamaguchi University in Japan have developed a heat pipe that is surgically implanted into the affected region of the brain and then connected to a heat sink on the outside of the skull (see picture, top right). This device carries heat away from the affected area, keeping it cool and reducing the chances of severe epileptic seizures in future.

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Stress-sensitive paint

Identifying damaged aircraft parts is a tricky business. Unless there are visual signs of damage, such as buckling or a dent, the part has to be X-rayed to determine whether it may contain microfractures that could endanger the aircraft.

The technique that Luna Innovations has come up with is to coat an aircraft part with a polymer containing a fluorescent dye held in tiny capsules. If that part is struck with force or twisted beyond a certain limit, the capsules break releasing the dye. A visual inspection of the aircraft then reveals exactly where any damage might have occurred.

Cellular energy booster

All living cells are powered by a molecule called adenosine triphosphate or ATP. It is a mobile power store that carries energy from the breakdown of nutrients in the form of double bonds within its structure. Its energy can be released when and where the cell needs it by breaking these bonds.

However, when the blood flow is stopped to a region of the body, during a heart attack, for example, the supply runs out. Researchers have tried to get around this problem by injecting ATP directly into the bloodstream. But this has had limited success, because the ATP rarely makes it to the inside of the cells. Now William Ehringer from the School of Medicine at the University of Louisville, US, plans to deliver ATP by encapsulating it within a wrapper of fatty lipid molecules.

The resulting tiny containers, or vesicles, are then injected into the bloodstream and distributed around the body. Importantly, the lipids are similar to those in the membranes of cells within the body. As a result, the vesicles will be partially absorbed into the cells, ensuring that the ATP is delivered directly where needed.

Ehringer has tested the technique with cells from human umbilical cords and says it works well. However, more tests will be needed to see whether it has a clinically valuable role to play in humans.

The method of using vesicles to carry biomolecules directly to cells within the body is not limited to ATP alone, and might have other useful applications in the future.